He also said: “Yunus is more reliable in his transmission from al-Zuhri than others. Musa ibn Harun and others stated decisively that it was interpolated. We narrated it in Fawa'id Ibn Abi Maysarah through the route of Abd al-Wahhab ibn Rafiʿ, from Ibn Shihab. He transmitted it with its chain, restricting himself to the additional statement, and this is a grave error.”
I say: There is no error on his part whatsoever, for he is trustworthy and his hadith is authentic, as stated previously. Moreover, he was corroborated by two trustworthy narrators, Ibn Jurayj and Salih ibn Kaysan. The former likewise confined himself to the additional statement, as explained above. Thus, these are three reliable and precise narrators who agreed in attributing this addition to the Prophet. Two of them related it separately from the beginning of the hadith, while the other—Salih—joined it to it. Their agreement is proof that it is an established statement attributed to the Prophet and not interpolated, as al-Hafiz alleged. It is remarkable that Ibn Jurayj’s narration escaped his notice altogether, so that he did not mention it at all; and that he cited Ibn Rafiʿ’s narration only from Fawa'id Ibn Abi Maysarah, although it is found in the Sunan and the Musnad!
It is also corroborated by what al-Humaydi recorded in his Musnad (329): Sufyan narrated to us; Safwan ibn Sulaym narrated to me, from ʿAta ibn Yasar, who said: “A man came to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, and said: ‘O Messenger of Allah, may I lie to my wife without blame?’ He said: ‘No; Allah does not love lying.’ He said: ‘O Messenger of Allah, what if I seek to reconcile with her and please her?’ He said: ‘There is no blame upon you.’”
I say: This is an authentic chain of transmission, but it is mursal, and it does not meet the criteria of his Musnad. Yet he included it therein under “Hadiths of Umm Kulthum bint ʿUqbah ibn Abi Muʿayt.” It is as though he indicated thereby that, although the hadith reached him in this mursal form, he considered it more likely to belong to her Musnad; hence, he included it there. And Allah knows best.
It is further corroborated by the hadith of Shahr ibn Hawshab, from Asma bint Yazid, from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, who said: “Lying is not permitted except in three cases: a man’s lie to his wife in order to please her; a lie in war, for war is deception; or a lie in reconciling people.” Ahmad recorded it (6/459, 461), as did al-Tirmidhi (3/127, Tuhfah), who said: “A good hadith.”